Introduction to Linux

PacNOG5
June 2009
Papeete, French Polynesia
 Why use Linux?


Scalability and reliability
 has been around for many years
 works well under heavy load

Flexibility
 emphasises small, interchangeable components

Manageability
 remote logins rather than GUI
 scripting

Security
 Due to modular design has a reasonable security model
 Linux and its applications are not blameless though
 Initial topics:


Linux birds-eye overview

Partitioning

Ubuntu'isms
 Kernel


The "core" of the operating system

Device drivers

communicate with your hardware

block devices, character devices, network devices, pseudo
devices

Filesystems

organise block devices into files and directories

Memory management

Timeslicing (multiprocessing)

Networking stacks - esp. TCP/IP

Enforces security model
 Shells


Command line interface for executing
programs
DOS/Windows equivalent: command.com or command.exe

Choice of similar but slightly different shells
sh: the "Bourne Shell". Standardised in POSIX
 csh: the "C Shell". Not standard, but includes command
history
 bash: the "Bourne-Again Shell". Combines POSIX
standard with command history.
 User processes


The programs that you choose to run

Frequently-used programs tend to have short
cryptic names
 "ls" = list files
 "cp" = copy file
 "rm" = remove (delete) file

Lots of stuff included in most base systems
 editors, compilers, system admin tools

Lots more stuff available to install too
Using the Debian/Ubuntu repositories
 System processes


Programs that run in the background; also
known as "daemons" ==>

Examples:
 cron: executes programs at certain times of day
 syslogd: takes log messages and writes them to files
 inetd: accepts incoming TCP/IP connections and starts
programs for each one
 sshd: accepts incoming logins
 sendmail (other MTA daemon like Exim): accepts
incoming mail
 Security model


Numeric IDs
 user id (uid 0 = "root", the superuser)
 group id
 supplementary groups

Mapped to names
 /etc/passwd, /etc/group (plain text files)
 /etc/shadow

Suitable security rules enforced
 e.g. you cannot kill a process running as a different user,
unless you are "root"
Any questions?

?
 Standard PC boot sequence

1. Power to the Computer.

2. The Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) is read from a
chip.
3. The BIOS locates a suitable boot source (e.g. hard
drive, CD-ROM, network, USB).
4. Disks are divided into 512-byte blocks.
5. The very first block is the Master Boot Record (MBR).
6. The BIOS loads and runs the code in the MBR, which
continues the bootup sequence.
 Partitioning


The MBR contains a table allowing the disk
to be divided into partitions (4 max.).


Beyond that, you can nominate one partition
as an "extended partition" and then further
subdivide it into "logical partitions".


Windows wants to be in the first partition
(start of the disk). Linux can boot from most
any partition or drive (with modern BIOSes).
 Linux partitions


Partitions referred to by device type, device,
partition number - or:

SATA disk 1 is /dev/sda

Partition 1 on SATA disk 1 is /dev/sda1

Partition 3 on SATA disk 2 is...?

/dev/sdb3


Partition 1 on IDE disk 2 is...?

/dev/hdb1
Simple partitioning: /dev/sda (20GB)
MBR Entire drive for SATA disk 1

sda1 sda5 sda3 sda4 sda5

/ swap /var /tmp /usr

/ (root partition) sda1 512 MB

swap partition sda5 ~ 2 x RAM
/var sda3 4-8 GB (+)
/tmp sda4 1-2 GB
/usr sda5 rest of disk
 Core directory refresher

/ (/boot, /bin, /sbin, /etc, maybe /tmp)

/var (Log files, spool, maybe user mail)
/usr (Installed software packages)
swap (Virtual memory)
/tmp (May reside under “/”)

d Don't confuse the the “root account” (/root) with

the “root” (“/”) partition.
 'Default' Partition

During an Ubuntu installation you can choose

this option. It does the following:
1.Small root partition
this will contain everything not in another partition
/boot for kernel, /bin, /sbin etc.
2.A swap partition for virtual memory
3.Rest of disk in “/”
Home directories are /home/<username>
 Partitioning Issues


/var may not be big enough

/usr contains the OS, 3rd party software, and
your own important data
 If you reinstall from scratch and erase /usr, you will lose
your own data

Everything in “/” is now more common due to
RAID. Why? Valid?

What about /home?

/tmp?

Others?
 Note...


Partitioning is just a logical division

If your hard drive dies, most likely everything
will be lost.
 If you want data security, then you need to
set up mirroring with a separate drive.
 Another reason to keep your data on a separate partition,
e.g. /u
 Remember, “rm -rf” on a mirror works very well.
 Or, as always “Data Security” <==> Backup
Any questions?

?
 Ubuntu'isms
What's Different
• Software management
• dpkg
• apt (this is what we'll use)
• apt-cache
• aptitude
• synaptic
• meta-packages
• repositories
 What's Different cont.

• Startup scripts
• In /etc/init.d/ (System V)
• Upon install services run!
• Controlling services
• update-rc.d
• sysvconfig
• rcconf
• rc-config
 What's Different cont.
What's Different cont.
•Make and GCC
•Not installed by default. Why?
•32,000+ packages
•To get “apt-get install build-essential”
 What's Different cont.
What's Different cont.
• The use of root is discouraged by default and
sudo is used instead.
• You can do apt-get dist-upgrade to move
between major and minor releases.
• Sources in /etc/apt/sources.list (how you
install from cd/dvd).
 Important Reads
Critical Reads
man apt-get
man sources.list

Some people like aptitude. That's fine, but

watch out for dependency issues!
 Meta Packages
Meta Packages
• Annoying to new users
• Provide all packages for subsystems
• Initial documentation
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MetaPackages

Examples include:
• build-essential (libc, g++, gcc, make)
• ubuntu-desktop (xorg, gnome)
• xserver-xorg-video-intel
 There's More
There's more...
But, hopefully enough to get us started...
Some Resources
•www.ubuntu.com
•ubuntuforums.org
•www.debian.org
•ubuntuguide.org
•http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian
•http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_(Linux_distribution)

GIYF (Google Is Your Friend)

 Packages & Exercises

We'll reinforce some of these concepts using

exercises...